


Christmas, December 24, 1970

by MissAtomicBomb77



Series: For the Greater Good, Let's Do the News [12]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Canon, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-06 23:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissAtomicBomb77/pseuds/MissAtomicBomb77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It played with his mind and his heart just a little to see her bounding around in her white dress, sharing half a dance with anyone that wanted one, with these faux feather wings and crooked silver tinseled wire halo sticking up above her head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas, December 24, 1970

December 24, 1970  
10:54 pm  
Le Hotel Royal  
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

They had made her Queen of the Ball. Of course they would, she put every other woman in the room to shame. It played with his mind and his heart just a little to see her bounding around in her white dress, sharing half a dance with anyone that wanted one, with these faux feather wings and crooked silver tinseled wire halo sticking up above her head. Seeing his angel, his Lovely Leona, dressed as, well, an angel.

Charlie and his boss Ed had leaned themselves up against the bar as they watched her. Charlie wanted her to be happy for Christmas and this seemed to be working. He could tell as the day sneaked up and as the Armed Forces Radio started belting out Bing Crosby’s White Christmas nonstop, even though it was anything but in Phnom Penh, that Lee was excited. They talked about going to church, but she didn’t want to. This was how he learned she was raised Catholic and had attended mass every single day from the time she was four until she graduated high school.

“I attended enough church for both our lifetimes and plenty to spare.” She had told him.

So when Ed had mentioned there was going to be a Christmas Ball at the hotel he knew that they had to be there. He got them a room for the night and he even polished his black dress shoes and wore his black slacks. With each passing minute he was pleased with himself. Her joy was infectious. This was their gift to each other. Lee asked him not to get her anything, he told her the same and they agreed that spending the night at the hotel was more than enough for both of them.

Well, he did get her a gift, it was in the room. It was a pain in the ass to get, but he knew that she would appreciate the thought. Plus for someone that seemed so excited about a holiday, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to please her. Because that was all he ever wanted to do anymore it seemed. He only wants to please her, make sure she’s happy, worship her, adore her, love her and make her feel strong and confidant about herself and her abilities. She was something and special seemed to be inadequate a word for it. Magnanimous, he thinks and makes a mental note to rummage around a thesaurus next time he’s in the office.

She does the same for him and she loves him. He’s still baffled by that last part, but he lets her have it. Besides, if he’s ever feeling low or unconfident, he just has to ask her why she loves him and she raises his spirits. He’s even pouted a little and she humors him when really, he just wants her full attention.

“Are you coming back for New Year’s?” Ed asks, his voice slightly slurred. He’s been drinking long before Charlie and Leona arrived and Charlie, he’s been nursing the same glass for over an hour. Ed’s has had so much to drink he hasn’t noticed Charlie was being a bit of a teetotaler tonight. He wanted to be fully in charge of his senses for when they finally retreated back to their room.

“Only if she wants to, but there’s not as much emotion tied to New Year’s you know? There’s something about Christmas that just makes people want to be nice to other people. She likes people. I like her. So I take her to people.”

Ed laughs a little too loud at this. “Yeah, I still have no idea while the hell she likes you, you fucking hermit.”

“I ask myself the same damn question every day.” Charlie says in all seriousness, but when Ed continues to laugh, he joins in, just not as boisterously.

The night is over when Charlie and Phat have to carry Ed out to his Mercedes to get him home. Phat drives and just decides to spend the night. Christmas is a very Christian holiday and it means very little to him. However Charlie and Ed are good people and Phat helps them take care of each other.

When he comes back to the ballroom, she’s sitting at a table, for what he believes to be the first time all evening, feet up on another chair, her shoes on the table and her angel wings and halo on the floor. She’s greedily drinking water from a glass. He watches her for a minute before she sees him out of the corner of her eye. She sighs and is content as she finishes her water. He comes over now, all smiles at her. “Wanna fly Christmas Angel?”

Before she can even answer, he’s scooped her up and she’s over his shoulder. She’s laughing at him now, half pleading, and half mocking but completely at ease. She waves at the people that are left as he carries her to the elevator. Lee expected that he would put her down, but he didn’t and started to whistle Jingle Bells as he selected their floor and waited for the elevator to move. Lee hangs her head in mock defeat.

Once they are in the room and he sets her on the bed, they never quite escape each other and they end up making love soon enough.

It’s not quite morning when he stirs and decides to find her present. He slips out of bed and finds his shoulder bag and slips back into bed. He’s always been thankful that she’s a heavy sleeper. It was a perfume bottle, a quarter ounce of Chanel No. 5. Ed had managed to find it for him somehow once Charlie had learned that it was something she adored. Her stores were long gone, but she had kept the empty bottle. It wasn’t cheap either, but Charlie didn’t care. He had the money to spare; he saved every dime except what he needed to survive.

He opens the bottle carefully and dabs a little on her right wrist. He would do the other if it wasn’t for the fact it was under her pillow. He places the bottle on the nightstand and curls back up around her and dozes for a while longer.

Later in the morning her squeal startles him awake. Then Lee starts beating him mercilessly with her pillow. He weakly defends himself but he can’t help but laugh because she’s delighted. “You weren’t supposed to get me anything!” She says as she smacks him with the pillow.

“But Christmas!” he argues, but it’s hard to say in his laughter. God, he’s proud of himself, almost smug.

Her faux anger passes in a moment and she gives up beating him with the pillow before she slips out of bed. Charlie’s eyebrow arches because he surprised that she’s left him in bed. She heads to the bathroom but is back in a moment with a small folded piece of newsprint. “Here. I was ready just in case you decided to betray me.” Now she’s all smiles as she slides back into bed.

He sits up and unfolds the paper to discover ink refills for his Parker Flighter CT pen. “HOW?” he asks and he’s the one that’s acting like a seven year old boy that got a new bike. “I’ve been trying for months to get more of these!”

She’s slightly bashful. “I had a feeling you would not hold up our agreement about no presents.”

“You didn’t either,” he says, smiling like an idiot as he places the refills on the nightstand.

“Merry Christmas Charlie,” She says as she gives him a quick kiss on the lips.

He takes her right hand and brings her wrist to his lips and enjoys the smell of the perfume for a moment before giving her a kiss. “Merry Christmas Leona,” and within in a few minutes, they’re back to their mutual adoration and worship of each other.


End file.
